Hot Topics:

Come to the Charity Dutch Auction at Sunnybrook before it's going, going, gone

2010 Dutch Auction: Auction attendees await the start of the live auction during the 2010 Boyertown Area YMCA Charity Dutch Auction at Gilbertsville Fire Company. This year's auction will be at Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown.

Pottstown’s SunnyBrook Ballroom will be filled with excitement Saturday, March 9 when the Boyertown Area YMCA Charity Dutch Auction continues its 32-year tradition of combining fun and fundraising at 6 p.m. in the yearly event that brings together longtime YMCA supporters, bargain hunters, and auction devotees.

In 1982, before the Boyertown Area YMCA was even housed in a building, YMCA Board member Cheryl Borneman was instrumental in starting the Charity Dutch Auction as a fundraising event to raise money for the Golden Rule Financial Assistance Program, which helps individuals and families who could not otherwise afford to pay the fees for memberships, camps, child care, or programs. Borneman relied upon fellow YMCA Board members and friends Linda Lignelli, Ute Boyer, and Suzanne Biesecker to assist with auction planning in the early years.

The Orioles social club in downtown Boyertown was chosen as the venue for the original event, and around 100 items were gathered to be auctioned off with approximately 75-100 people in attendance. Ralph Borneman and Dr. Jack Lignelli served as auctioneers for the maiden event, with lifetime memberships to the YMCA being one of the big draws of the evening.

Over the years, many other area residents have lead the bidding charge, including Jim Webb, Cindy Parks, John White, Rich Graver, and Kim Hemingway. At the 2012 auction, Pennsylvania State Representatives Marcy Toepel and David Maloney appeared as two special guest auctioneers, and in 2013, event sponsors are being offered guest auctioneering spots in thanks for their contributions.

Advertisement

Most recently, Jim Davidheiser and Kevin Zimmers have split the evening’s auctioneering duties. Both are longtime auctioneer regulars who know how to work the crowd into a bidding frenzy whether the item is a hot pie from a local pizzeria or a weeklong trip to a foreign locale.

Each year as the auction became more popular, increasingly larger spaces were needed to hold the inventory and number of people who attended, which required moving the event to the former Dinner Bell restaurant, then Keystone Fire Company, then Gilbertsville Fire Company (where the auction was held for nearly two decades), and now in 2013 to SunnyBrook Ballroom at 50 Sunnybrook Road in Pottstown (across East High Street from Pottstown Memorial Medical Center).

While the size of the venues grew, so did the number of volunteers needed to coordinate the event. The year-round project elicits planning and fundraising help from at least 60 volunteers, including Boyertown Area YMCA Board members, staff, and a team of Charity Dutch Auction committee members, who are recruited because of their love of the auction. Then on the night of the auction anywhere from 25 to 50 people help with tasks such as registration, prize delivery, and raffle ticket sales.

Boyertown resident Missy Endy has been volunteering in different capacities since the original auction and continues to enjoy her involvement with the fundraiser.

“I’ve been helping ever since the first one. It’s just a way to give back, to help. You see the good that the money raised can do,” said Endy.

Auction items have also changed over the years. In the beginning, there were typically around 100 items up for bid and many of them were services provided by community members, such as coming to the highest bidder’s home to cook dinner or rake leaves in his yard or babysit for his children. However, due to safety concerns, those types of personalized services are no longer offered.

“These days that kind of thing won’t work because you don’t know who it is. Things have evolved, because of the way society is, with what you can and cannot donate,” explained Boyertown Area YMCA Daniel B. Boyer Center Executive Director and Charity Dutch Auction co-chairperson Kim Slonaker.

If the past few years are any indication, there should be more than 700 items up for bid. A current list of auction items can be found on the Boyertown YMCA’s website (www.boyertownymca.org), but items typically continue to come in up until the actual day of the event.

Most items are bid on through a silent auction, which will begin when the doors open at 6 p.m., and includes jewelry, tickets to museums/attractions, a variety of baskets filled with everything from beauty products to toys, as well as gift certificates for local restaurants, salons, stores, and services.

Some of the 100+ big ticket items available this year for the live auction, which will begin at 7:30 p.m., include a Nook HD Tablet, a stay and play golf package for four at Delaware Water Gap Country Club, an eight-week dog obedience course, original artwork by local artists, and lunch and tour of the Capitol with Pennsylvania Senator Judy Schwenk.

For travelers in search of a getaway, there are several vacations on which to bid, including a weekend at a cabin in the Poconos; a week at a private home in Ocean City, N.J.; and a week at a condo in Kissimmee, Fla.

Sports enthusiasts will have the opportunity to bid on tickets to games and memorabilia from their favorite teams, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia 76ers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Reading Royals, Reading Fightin’ Phils, and Camden Riversharks.

There will be a cash bar and snacks available for purchase, so no outside drinks or food will be permitted. Additionally, SunnyBrook Restaurant will be open and serving dinner until 9 p.m. that evening.

“It’s just a fun event,” explains Slonaker. “We do have certain people who are very faithful and come out every year. I think some people come with an amount of money in mind that they want to spend or they look at the list ahead of time and decide that they are going to get something no matter what it costs. We are very, very blessed by the community being so generous to us for this.”

For more information about the 32nd Annual Boyertown Area YMCA Charity Dutch Auction, visit the Boyertown Area YMCA website at www.boyertownymca.org or contact Kim Slonaker at (610) 369-9622, ext. 225.